which turns to daily and conspicuous wants; no patriotism, but in startling actions of the cabinet or the field? Is there not a self-enjoyment, a philosophy, a benevolence, a patriotism that may wait upon. all the occupations of the busiest life, bringing to it happiness that comes unsought for, and gratitude and blessings at which it never aimed? What answer do we need but the life and actions of Franklin?

Without seeking to depreciate the superiority of qualities he possessed by nature, it may yet be confidently said, that of all men who have performed a part so conspicuous on the theatre of life, he reached it by that cultivation of his faculties, that care and forethought of conduct, that wise reflection, that hopeful and trusting spirit, which are within the reach of every human being. If indolence and indifference were foreign to his nature, he yet checked every impulse of unregulated enthusiasm ; if his imagination was lively, reason and reflection were ever at hand to control its flights; if he refused a blind deference to authority, he yet respected and weighed opinions adverse to his own; in the controversies of science and of business, he was tolerant towards all opposition; and through the mass of his private correspondence, which accident has disclosed, I do not remember an expression bitter or ungenerous towards those who differed from him in political sentiment or action. If he ever lost the

habitual control of his temper or language, in a word that he has written, it is in expressions of angry indignation excited by injuries inflicted on his country.

Yet there was no insensibility in his feelings, or selfishness in his disposition; his impulses were warm and generous; his sympathy was sincere, lively and comprehensive; he was the ready friend of those who wanted friends-the young, the humble, the unfortunate; a genial humor, and a playful wit, and gentle and tender affections brightened the intercourse of his domestic home; his benignity, which had made him a welcome companion in youth and lowliness, gave him, in more conspicuous scenes, a gracious ease that the world admired, but did not envy; and what can surpass the serene dignity of his prolonged old age, which, undisturbed alike by querulousness or levity, was equally preserved amid the splendor and flattery of courts, on the couch of pain, and in the consciousness of approaching death?

Though few men have been more steadily actuated by ambition, though few have more coveted and enjoyed honorable distinction and respect; yet he sought them by the exercise of his talents, by incessant industry, by patient frugality, by tenacity of resolution, by an integrity never sullied, and a social intercourse that brought to him ready confidence and aid; above all, by the unwearied pursuit, for

himself and for those around him, of whatever was useful and true. Though never wanting boldness, either in speculation or action, the instincts of his nature were utility and truth; he was cautious even while enterprising; he made the suggestions of imagination subservient to the judgments of his understanding. In his boyhood, he abridged his meals and saved something from his slender wages to gain the time and the means to acquire, by study, variety and accuracy of knowledge. Through life, his busiest occupations could withhold him from no inquiry that seemed to promise a useful result. He held it to be not less a duty than a pleasure for every one, in his own sphere of industry, to contribute something by science or research to the sum of existing knowledge, and his own example is the proof with what ease and benefit that duty may be done. He would not seek, he even declined, patents for his profitable inventions, having, as he said, derived advantages from those of others, and being glad of an opportunity, in return, to serve them by means of his own. His philosophy, like the apparatus he preferred to use, was simple, almost homely. No vain love of originality led him into untried speculations. He disclaimed conclusions until they were verified by experiment; when, in familiar correspondence, he suggested a theory, probable and reasonable in itself, but not founded on actual observation, he apologized for his "reveries" as he

called them, and for "wandering a little in the wilds of fancy." Yet over what fields of science did the busy printer range; what advancing steps of progress did he add to truths already known; what foundations did he lay for many that have been since explored!

Although the wonderful theory, verified by his kite, his finger and his key, which assured us of the existence of a subtle element through all nature, as pervading and as cogent as gravitation itself, and from the development of which have arisen the most astonishing influences upon the social relations, intercourse and commerce of our age; although his suggestions, experiments and discoveries in electricity, are the scientific labors by which his fame has been most extended, they yet form but a limited portion of the inquiries of his active mind. Watching external nature with a constant and curious eye, his observations and experiments have laid the basis of the soundest theories in meteorology. Laws unknown before his suggestions, and explained by him with the happiest clearness and simplicity, are now recognized as governing the wild movements of the winds, the tempests and the tides. Improvements in navigation; examinations throwing light upon the internal structure of the earth; were some among the many objects of his research. To him we owe the earliest accurate investigation, the first just theory of the great ocean current which sweeps

from the Gulf of Mexico, the phenomena of which are unsurpassed in importance in the hydrography of the globe. Quick as was his mental eye to penetrate far into the future, little could he foresee that one of his own descendants was to perish in that stormy current, in the midst of investigations towards which he had led the way, pursued with the dauntless chivalry of science.

To researches such as these, his instinct of benevolent utility added inventions and suggestions, more familiar indeed, but even more conducive to the immediate relief, comfort and protection of those around. His fire-place, his remedies for smoking chimneys, and his musical glasses; his school for swimming; his establishment of fire companies, of a new city watch, and of a system of cleansing and lighting the streets of Philadelphia; his promptly formed scheme for its defence, when threatened with invasion and without troops, by voluntary associations of the citizens; his artillery club, joined, as he says, by eight hundred, chiefly tradesmen, on the day he proposed it, and more signing hourly who are to go weekly to the battery, and exercise the great guns;" his plan for the protection and instruction of indigent emigrants arriving from Europe; his effort to introduce the culture of silk, the olive, and the vine-these were but a few of the useful measures by which he was incessantly ministering to daily and conspicuous wants.

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